VICTORIA -- The B.C. government says a new milestone has been reached on the road to vehicle electrification in the province.
There are now more than 30,000 electric vehicles (EVs) on B.C.'s roads, 10 years after the first EVs landed in the province in November 2009.
The latest data from the province show there are approximately 31,200 light-duty EVs registered in B.C.
The B.C. Ministry of Energy, Mines and Petroleum Resources says EV sales made up nine per cent of all light-duty vehicle sales in the first nine months of 2019. That's up from four per cent in 2018.
The province now boasts the highest per-capita sales of electric vehicles in North America, surpassing Quebec at seven per cent of all vehicle sales, and California at eight per cent.
“On the 10th anniversary of the first electric vehicles hitting B.C. roads, it’s great to see that B.C. drivers are going electric in record numbers,” said Michelle Mungall, Minister of Energy, Mines and Petroleum Resources in a statement Thursday.
“Thanks to our CleanBC plan, British Columbia is the leader in Canada for clean energy and on track to meet our targets for getting more electric vehicles on the road years ahead of time.”
The province estimates the roughly 30,000 EVs on B.C. roads will reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 1.8 million tonnes over their lifetime.
There are now more than 1,700 electric-vehicle charging stations around the province, many of them free to use, and more are being added every month, the province said.
